Around the bases...A tale of two teams

Of course Barry Bonds is the story right now of the San Francisco Giants. He should be. I would argue vigorously (steroids or not) that he is the best hitter ever in baseball. And the arguably best hitter in baseball is about to break the most sacred of baseball records...the all-time home run record held by Hank Aaron. That's a big deal and Bonds is currently only 11 home runs shy of breaking the record. But the truth is that Barry Bonds is not the story of the Giants. Pitching is the story. Noah Lowry, Matt Morris, and young superstar in the making Matt Cain all have ERAs under 3.50. And the Giants big free agent acquisition Barry Zito is solid with an ERA of 4.29. Between these four pitchers they have 113 strikeouts, while allowing only 13 home runs. Every one of them has pitched over 50 innings this year already. That's an average of at least 6 innings per pitcher. Their combined record is 13-12, but that's a little misleading considering the Giants are a team with only 4.68 runs per game average. Take away Barry Bonds' 25 runs and 23 RBIs, and you are looking at a low run scoring team thus far. BUT, a team with effective pitching and that's why even at 19-20, and 4.5 games back in the NL West, this is a team that should compete for the division title in September. Then, you have a team like the Texas Rangers. They are 15-25 and 7 games back of the AL West division leading Angels. They've got a shot if the Giants do right? Here's a team actually averaging more runs per game than the Giants at 4.725, although it takes more runs in the AL when you've got the DH instead of pitchers hitting. And this is a team that usually is in the top 5 teams in the American League in runs scored every year for the last several years. So, have they got a chance? Doubtful. The Rangers also are the last in fielding stats in the AL right now, unlike the Giants who are 10th in the NL in fielding stats. The Rangers have 37 errors to the Giants 25. That doesn't help the Rangers. And more importantly, where the Giants have solid pitching, the Rangers have almost no pitching. They are not last in that category. Just next to last. Their team ERA is 5.20. And of their top 4 pitchers, only one has an ERA under 5.00 and just barely at 4.87. Remember the Giants top four pitchers had 113 strikeouts and all had pitched over 50 innings. The top 4 Rangers pitchers have 100 strikeouts and only Vincent Padilla has pitched over 50 innings. Brandon McCarthy and the injured again staff ace Kevin Millwood have both pitched less than 40 innings each. What's the point of this comparison? Pitching matters. Fielding matters. Little things matter. You can take two average hitting teams that are underachieving at the plate and if one of them is playing decent defense and more importantly has good solid pitching, they can still compete in September.

And speaking of pitching, the Yankees needed help and let's hope they got it with the signing of Roger Clemens for $28million on a prorated basis when he joins the team. The Yankees pitchers can't stay healthy, both the young and the old ones. Amazingly enough though, they are still almost one full earned run ahead of the Texas Rangers when it comes to team ERAs. Anyway, here's hoping the Rocket still has some juice.

Almost!!! - The Curse Of A Full Moon

I can't believe we were this close! My son and I almost witnessed in person the rare no hitter in baseball tonight, and to make it even better, it was a Yankee pitching. Maybe it was the full moon tonight. It was supposed to rain all day today in Dallas and it rained very little. Game time at Rangers Ballpark was pleasant at 70 degrees with a breeze. I expected the Rangers' batters to tee it up against Yankee pitcher, Phil Hughes, who was pitching his second major league game. His first had been a disaster last week against the Blue Jays, and his ERA was 8.13. But hey, Kameron Loe was pitching for the Rangers. I wasn't the only one at the ballpark that was expecting a hitter's fiesta. And Kameron Loe delivered that hitter's fiesta for the Yankees, allowing them 10 hits and 9 runs. But not Hughes. All of a sudden at the end of the 5th inning, I looked over to my friend and my son and said, "Did you realize Hughes has got a no hitter going?" No one was really thinking about it. Too focused on the Yankees' hitting machine. Phil Hughes wasn't supposed to be pitching this good. Sure, he's the highly touted, future superstar. But, he was making his second major league start and his first one sucked. Like I said, there was a full moon tonight. In 6 1/3 innings, Hughes was dominant: 83 pitches, 53 of those pitches were strikes. 6 strikeouts. And then, as if the baseball gods had conspired to curse the greatness I was watching (on the same date Nolan Ryan threw his 7th no hitter for the Rangers), Hughes pulled up in his follow through indicating he'd hurt his leg. No one knows for sure, but before anyone could even think about it, the Yankees trainer was on the field and Joe Torre had pulled Hughes from the game. Speculation is that its a groin or hamstring pull. Either way, Hughes' no hitter was gone just like he was. Give the Rangers fans credit: Hughes got a standing ovation for his performance. And in typical fashion, the Yankees bullpen blew the no hitter and the shutout. Final score was 9-1 and any Yankees fan has to be pleased. They turned 3 double plays. Jorge Posada had 3 hits, 2 RBIs, and scored 3 runs. Robinson Cano got 4 hits, 3 RBIs, and scored 2 runs. A-Rod had 3 hits and scored a run. Matsui got 2 RBIs and scored 2 runs. Everyone contributed. Of the 10 batters that played in the game, 7 of them got hits for the Yanks. But I really only cared about the no hitter. The one that got away. I saw greatness tonight, even if it played a short set.